SilverEagle

Have we forgotten that "the Tuna" called him in for an interview to be an assistant for the Cowboys? I think they were looking at him to be the TE coach. But keep in mind that there were/are thousands of coaches out there with lots of college/pro experience that would have jumped at that opportunity. So, in his situation, that would have been jumping from HS to PROS. I've advocated this for a long time, so I'll mention it again. We need to be looking around NOW for the next hot up and coming coach to replace TD. TD could stay here longer than four years for various reasons. But if he's as successful as we all hope he will be, four additional years will probably be the max. By that time, Riley will be in (or close) to his senior season, and TD's daughter should be approaching her senior year in HS. At that point, something dramatic would have had to occur in our fund raising and/or giving by our alumni for us to out-bid schools who are already paying coaches 2mil per year. Does anyone think that, even with a dramatic improvement in our record in the next four years, our current fund raising staff will seize the opportunity to get more people involved in giving to the athletic program? I don't know about the rest of you, but since the hiring of TD I haven't been impressed.

Just as someone suggested. About six weeks.

Oh good! I was concerned that it might mean that he was injured and not to be hit.

He seems like a very fine young man, and a potential asset to the team. He's already had more than his share of adversity in his life, and seems to have worked through it. I look forward to following his progress as a D-1 football player for us. BTW, I forget. What does the red cap on his helmet mean?

Yeah, for someone. Since you obviously seem to be one of the few who have access to scrimmages, I look forward to your comments.

Every time I think about SMU (and many other rich schools) and us, I always think about that Billie Holiday (and arthur herzog jr.)* song, and it's most famous refrain...... Mama may have, papa may have But God bless the child thats got his own Thats got his own * with all due respect to the greatness of Billie Holiday, my favorite version of this song is by Blood Sweat and Tears, and David Clayton Thomas.

Oldtimer? Any info about how someone who is 6'4" X 300 lbs, just vanished into thin air?

I thought they said every 30 seconds..............

And now for our mailbag. Anthony wanted to know how BJ Lewis looks this year. Lewis is currently running with the second team. He is solidly in UNT's top eight receivers and will play in the slot. He has a nice combination of size and speed. He might be with the No. 1s if Casey Fitzgerald had not moved into the slot midway through last season. Bill was wondering if Ethan McMillen, an offensive lineman from Aledo ever joined the team. He isn't on the roster and the UNT officials I asked had never heard of McMillen....... I suppose that we all just imagined the channel 8 story in the spring about his plans to walk-on at North Texas. Wasn't there a story in print about his plans to come here and walk-on? *UPDATE* OK, I knew that I wasn't crazy (well, not about this anyway) the following is from Oldtimers recruitment section on walk-ons 1. OG Ethan McMillan, Aledo, 6-4, 300, 5.5, Sr. year 2007 1st team all district 8-4A, committed to UH...but suffered leg injury in HS playoff game, UH pulled his ship. Will walk on a preferred walkon at NT this fall. 2. DT Aaron Fortenberry, Era, 6-5, 260, 5.2, 2006 1st Team All District 11-1A at both OL and DL, 2007 1st team all district 11-1A at both OL and and DL, 2007 1st Team AP @ All State, Senior stats: graded 97.3 %, 72 pancake blocks, zero sacks allowed. Will walk-on at NT this fall. 3. RB/CB Tajh Redwing, Farmersville, 5-6, 171, 4.6 Jr. Stats: 284 carries for 1,718 yds and 22 TD's, 2006: District 13-2A 1st Team RB, 2nd Team CB 2007: District 13-2A District MVP, AP 2A All State 2nd Team RB Invited guest on the sidelines during spring scrimmage at NT 08 4. QB Eric Jeffrey, Caddo Mills, 6-0, 170, 4.6, Jr. Stats: completed 83 passout of 166 tries for 1,136 yds and 10 TD's, with one interception 2006: 1st Team All District 12-2A @QB, as Junior 2007: 2nd Team All District 12-2a @QB, as Senior Invited guest on the sidelines during spring scrimmage at NT O8 5. WR Chris Brainard, SLC, 5-11, 162, Invited walk-on, Sr. 5-5A 1st Team All District @WR, to play in the 2008 Oil Bowl

GrayEagleone can be more specific about the date when we joined D-1, but when divisions were first formed North Texas played in the small college division. We had several players in the 30's and 40's who made the "Little All-America" team. About the time that we joined the MVC (in the 50's) we moved up to what is now considered D-1 football. We played there until 82 when we moved to 1-AA, and then re-joined D-1 in the 95 season.

He also mentioned that Jonathan Stewart was going to be moved to DE. He said that Jonathan will always be in the 245lb range, so DE is a better place for him.

Ok, I don't really care about Greg Garden, but I really want to know if Ethan McMillan showed up.

Meangreenbob, did you mention a North Texas yell? What North Texas yell.. You mean when the cheerleaders come over and stand in front of the reserved section (and these are the 2nd team cheerleaders) and yell "GO NORTH TEXAS, GO NORTH TEXAS, GO! GO! .............Generic drivel. I've told this story many times (and here it is once more), but when I was invited to participate in a focus group (Led by Dr. Lane) after the 1990 season, my main input to the group was that North Texas doesn't have any traditions to speak of. I pointed out that TCU has their own yell*. It sounds stupid, but it's their stupid yell and they put the words up on their field house for everyone to see. I went on to say that North Texas doesn't even have a stupid yell, just generic yells with North Texas inserted in the appropriate places. I furthur stated that North Texas games looked like generic football games that someone contracted to put on, because they were required to have a certain number of 'football events" at Fouts each year. There was a football team that showed up, a band that showed up, and some spirit and/or fraternal organizations that showed up. BUT NONE OF THEM SEEMED TO BE CONNECTED TO ONE ANOTHER. They all did their "thing" during the game, and seemed oblivious to one another. So MGB, you are not telling me anything that I haven't already noticed (and pointed out to officials) years ago. The people running that focus group were so impressed with my feedback that I've never been invited to any sort of focus group again. * The TCU stupid yell Rif Ram: Riff, Ram, Bah Zoo Lickety, Lickety, Zoo, Zoo Who, Wah, Wah, Who Give ‘em hell, TCU

Somewhere in the story, it mentions that he is transferring to another school.

It was at the end of the 1972 season (1-10). Your right, it almost passed. Rod Rust was fired at the end of that season and Hayden Fry was hired. Unless you're implying that there is some sort of anti-football DNA that has been passed on to every subsequent North Texas student generation, I don't see how that might be connected to this generation of students. Believe me, the students in 1972 were much different than the students of today. During that era, there was a male student running for homecoming queen, and during that era, one candidate for student body president called himself "King Bizzaro" (I voted for him). I feel confident in saying that that 1972 vote was as much an anti-establishment vote as it was an anti-athletics vote. If it's any comfort to you, the students of today are a bunch of sheep compared to the students of 1972.

I like this one. 2. UNT will have a deeper and more talented group of wide receivers. Once again, I buy it. I have not gone back and counted, but I think UNT has signed approximately 83 wide receivers since Todd Dodge took over as head coach. The law of averages says some of these guys have to be decent. Dodge has been telling anyone who will listen that guys like Sam Dibrell are ready to break out. Any student of comedy knows that large odd numbers are funny. Besides, it's not too much of an exaggeration.

...when the Texas Bigfoot Research Conservancy has better gear available than North Texas. http://www.cafepress.com/cp/store.aspx?s=texasbigfoot

I don't care if our QB is 6'+ in size. I just care that they are confident in their abilities, and are leaders on the field. Some of our best QB's have been 6' or less. Mitch Maher 6' Jordan Case 6' Greg Carter, about 5'10" Kenny Washington about 5'11"

I don't think that Bush is the problem.......he's the poster child for the problem. I believe that the latest shooting was in a church.....because the nut wielding the gun thought that the church was too liberal. Nuf said. I don't know if Dr. Spock advocated that kids be spanked or not.....he probably advocated not. But spanking children has always been the panacea of the lazy parent. It's over in a short period of time. The willful child would probably prefer it, so that they can feel obsolved of guilt for their misbehavior, and they can more quickly get back to the mischief they were getting into in the first place. And the only thing they learned from the experience was "don't piss off the big people, and don't get caught". And the parent can then get back to watching sports or soap operas. Children killing without a conscience has nothing to do with spanking or not spanking.

That sounds about right. Does anyone know how long it took SMU to build their new stadium? Part of the process for them was tearing down some (or all) of the old stadium and building on an old (totally land locked) site. Our construction site is easy to get to, and most of the prep work is just dirt work.

My wife and I just love Leonard Pitts. He worries about the same things that we worry about. Stupidity rising By Leonard Pitts Jr. Article Last Updated: 07/25/2008 07:20:06 PM CDT I love comic books. For 41 years, I've studied them, collected them, written and read exhaustively about them. So I hope you'll agree I'm qualified to judge the merits of a comic book created by one Brent Rinehart as a tool in his campaign for re-election as a commissioner of Oklahoma County, Okla. It is really, really bad. You may see for yourself by clicking the link to be found at www.anorak.co.uk/anorak-in-new-york/ 185867.html. Now, you may think my less than glowing appraisal stems from its rank anti-gay bigotry, including a depiction of a gay man with horns. Or from the artwork, which looks like something scrawled by a gifted 6-year-old. Well, yes. But here's the main reason Rinehart's work offends: It is astonishingly stupid. Voters should support him because an angel does? His opponents are in league with Satan? Old Scratch is working to "get kids to believe homosexuality is normal" and Rinehart is their only defense? And I haven't even mentioned the creative punctuations and multiple misspellings. I am not an Oklahoma County voter, so maybe you wonder why I care about Rinehart's campaign. I don't. What I do care about is what I will call the ongoing stupidification of America, of which this is but one glaring example among many. Think of the congressman who advocated bombing Mecca to teach Muslims a lesson. Think of the "zero-tolerance" policy that required a 10-year-old to be suspended for bringing to school the tiny toy gun from his GI Joe. Think of the "Jay Walking" segment on the "Tonight Show" where average Americans cannot answer basic questions of civics and history. Think of those cable shows where we are theoretically entertained by coarse women vying for the affection of washed-up rock stars. Heck, read your junk e-mail. And then tell me you don't feel the nation's collective IQ dropping like stocks. I am not talking about ignorance. Ignorance is a lack of information; we're all ignorant in one way or another. Nor am I talking about people prone to punctuation or spelling errors; we all make mistakes. No, I'm talking about stupidity, which I define as an inability to analyze, draw conclusions from, or otherwise "use" information even when one has it. And stupidity is often characterized by smug indifference. When a CNN anchor drew Rinehart's attention to his spelling errors, his reply was, "I don't necessarily care." This is, I feel constrained to remind you, the elected representative of 220,000 people. For as much as we obsess over black vs. white and red vs. blue, I suspect the defining division of this technology-driven era will be between those who have and can exploit information and those who do not and cannot. Between intelligence and its opposite. One wonders how long we can continue to equate stupidity with "keeping it real," being a regular Joe or Jane, and hope to continue leading the world. There's a movie, "Idiocracy," which posits a post-intelligent future in which the stupid have inherited the Earth. It's not a great film, but there is a truth to it. You watch the characters watching a reality show that consists entirely of some guy being kicked in the testicles and you realize you wouldn't be surprised to see that show on VH-1 tomorrow. Why not? In recent years, we have seen intelligence demonized as the sole province of the "elite," a term that once described accomplishment, but is now used to condemn anyone who looks like he might have accidentally cracked a book or had a thought. Not long ago, I gave a commencement address in which I told young people I am less concerned with what they think than "that" they think. Because we are losing that skill. Me, I find that alarming. Maybe you disagree. I bet you'll feel differently when Brent Rhinehart is president.* Leonard Pitts Jr., is a columnist for the Miami Herald. His e-mail address is lpitts@miamiherald.com. He chats with readers on Wednesdays from noon to 1 p.m. CDT on www.MiamiHerald.com. SE's comment ]*We've already come dangerously close to this with our current occupant of the White House.

I was wondering if that was the same Rick Shaw that used to play QB for us. Great to know that we have him on board with the Mean Green.

If Fortenberry is the player from Era, I'm interested in seeing how he does against players from bigger programs.

great!

I hope your bank is a better predictor than my 401K plan.